Learn English – What do you call an area enclosed by apartment complex structures? Is it a courtyard

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Please take a look at the picture above. This is an inside area surrounded by apartment complex buildings. It contains parking space for the residents and a playground for kids.

What would be the proper name for this area? The best I could come up with so far is courtyard, or inside courtyard.

Sentences I'd like this to fit in:

Kids are playing in the _______ .

Where did you park the car? In the ________ .

Any help is very appreciated.

EDIT: The reason for a single word is I'm struggling with a Russian sentence, and they have a concise word for just such a thing. It's called dvor (literally "yard"), but its meaning encompasses what you see in the picture above.

This "dvor" is a colloquial term, not an official designation.

Edit #2: Thank you all for insightful answers. While I do not feel there's a single word that works as a perfect equivalent for "dvor", I'm going to accept "communal" (as in "communal parking lot" or "communal playground"), because this seems to capture Russian/Soviet mentality better, and was most useful to me in this specific instance.

Best Answer

You could use the 'communal area'

Communal - adjective

1 - used or shared in common by everyone in a group: a communal jug of wine.

2 - of, by, or belonging to the people of a community; shared or participated in by the public: communal land; Building the playground was a communal project.

www.dictionary.com

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